Four serious injuries in NYC subway derailment

New York City subway train derailed Friday morning in Queens, disrupting service on several local lines.

An express F train bound for Manhattan and Brooklyn derailed shortly before 10:30 a.m., according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York City Fire Department.

Firefighters and emergency medical service responders who went to the scene guided passengers to emergency ladders that led up through grates to the street as the derailment site was evacuated, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, and the fire department said no one had been transported to local hospitals. However, EMS crews evaluated several riders who rested on stretchers or in wheelchairs after they climbed from the subway to the street.

All passengers had been safely evacuated as of 12:15 p.m., the MTA said.

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New York City firefighters use an emergency staircase to evacuate passengers from a derailed F train on May 2, 2014 in the Woodside neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.

The F train derailed in a tunnel at 65th Street and Broadway in the Woodside section of Queens. The site, roughly 1,200 feet south of the 65th Street station, is a few miles east of Manhattan across the East River.

The F train line stretches from central Queens into Manhattan along Sixth Avenue, then south into Brooklyn and a terminus at Coney Island, home of the famed boardwalk and amusement park.

The derailment halted F train service in both directions between Jamaica-179th Street and 21st Street Queensbridge. Subway service on some sections of the E, M and R lines was also disrupted, the MTA said.

Three nearby subway trains were halted as emergency crews shut down electrical power after the derailment.

MTA Commissioner Thomas Prendergast was on scene to coordinate the response.

New York City's subway system is one of the largest public transportation systems in the world, with an average 5.5 million weekday rides.

System derailments are relatively rare. The most recent major derailment occurred in August 1991, when a southbound No. 4 train jumped the tracks as it roared into a curve at the Union Square station at 14th Street in Manhattan.

Five people were killed and more than 200 were injured in the disaster. The motorman, who was drunk at the time of the accident, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

—By Kevin McCoy for USA Today, with The Associated Press

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